Fun and Colorful Storage Baskets
I’m here today with my first ever craft tutorial! I’ve always been artsy and I’ve constantly made things for my house. So I thought I would share an idea I had recently and how I put it all together!
I’ve seen a bunch of trendy and fun, colorful storage baskets online recently, but they were always a bit more than I wanted to spend on something like that. I have a weird area above part of my kitchen cabinets where there’s a lot of dead space, because I guess early-90s, builder-grade cabinets didn’t extend to the ceiling. We also have a few kitchen gadgets and things we don’t use that often, and I wanted a place to store them out of the way. I thought some colorful baskets would do the trick!
First I found some fun baskets on clearance at Target and on Amazon. I tried to get some made of rope, and some made of grass, and each with different shapes and heights. Here are the baskets I purchased, as well as the supplies you need!
The first thing I did to the plain baskets was to paint color block stripes on them. I tried to pick fun colors I already use around my kitchen so they would look cohesive with the rest of the space. I just free-handed around the rope or straw coils that made up the baskets. I found that a foam brush worked better for the straw baskets, and a more detailed brush prevented the color from running on the cotton rope basket. It took some time, but as long as you go slow you can’t really mess it up. I just used regular old craft paint I had on hand!
Next, I decided to embellish some of the handles with yarn to add another pop of color. Did anyone else love hair wraps as a kid? Just us early 90’s kids? I was a very popular babysitter because of my ability to do cool hair wraps with embroidery floss. Well, this hidden talent came in handy while wrapping these handles! I just slowly wrapped yarn around the handles while keeping the yarn taught and tight.
Finally, I wanted to add some pompoms, because my daughter loves helping me make them, and I had yarn on hand. I also wanted to pickup the pompom shape from the basket that already had them. I used a pretty easy pompom maker you can find at most craft stores. You open the sides, wrap the yarn around, close the clasp, cut around the edge, and the tie a string around the middle. Make sure this string is somewhat long so that you have a way to tie the pompom onto the basket. Then you trim all over the surface of the pompom to get an even, more condensed shape, leaving the one long pair of strings intact. I recommend using scissors that have ONLY ever cut yarn, ribbon or fabric. If you use scissors that have cut paper, they won’t be as sharp and won’t work as well.
Then I simply attached the pompoms by tying the long strings around the basket handles. I used small clusters of like colors to add contrast to the baskets. Then I staggered them and put them in the empty area above my cabinets with my favorite pitcher. Overall, I think this was a pretty easy DIY, and it certainly makes the space above my cabinets happier and more colorful!
Let me know what you think, and if you try to decorate your own fun baskets! I’d love to see what you do!